1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sports and games of physical strength and skill, and particularly to a martial arts training dummy having an anthropomorphic configuration capable of allowing the practitioner to simulate injury to the dummy without damaging the dummy.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a number of different martial art forms, e.g., judo or jiu-jitsu, Greco-Roman and other forms of wrestling, and various other grappling forms of personal combat. Most of these martial art forms entail a one-on-one confrontation between two participants, and training or practice of these various forms involves two participants or partners who practice and train with one another. The object in most martial art forms is to injure or disable the opponent, but when working with another human as a training partner, one must exercise caution in order to avoid inflicting actual injury to the partner or other participant.
In martial art competitions, participants are separated or categorized according to their weight. Thus, it is desirable for a practitioner to work with a partner who not only has the required skills to provide a valuable workout for the practitioner, but who is also of the approximate same size and weight. It is also desirable during practice to repeat various moves or holds in order to develop “muscle memory” for the specific moves and holds. Accordingly, it will be seen that it can be quite difficult for a martial arts practitioner to locate a willing partner who is (a) skilled in the martial art, (b) of approximately the same size and weight as the practitioner, (c) is willing to allow himself to be subjected to repeated martial art moves and holds, and (d) is willing to take the risk that he might be injured during the training session.
Thus, a martial arts training dummy solving the aforementioned problems is desired.